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In New Westminster a massive fire in downtown destroyed several businesses in a heritage building on Columbia Street. Firefighters and police were called to a burning structure at 634 Columbia Street at 3:40 a.m.

METRO VANCOUVER -- Cesar Chung and Heidi Standeven are making the most of a bad situation.

The two are getting married Saturday, but Standeven’s three dresses — her wedding dress, Chinese Tea Ceremony dress and reception dress — were all destroyed in the Golden Brides wedding store in Thursday’s massive fire in New Westminster.

The couple got a bird’s-eye view of the fire, Chung said, watching from their apartment early Thursday morning as flames consumed the heritage building at the corner of Columbia and McKenzie streets that housed the bridal shop.

“Heidi was stoic and looked at me and said ‘You know what else was there?’ That’s when I realized her dresses were there.”

The blaze was the biggest since the Great Fire in 1898 that wiped out a third of the city.

“I’m pretty proud of her,” said Chung. “She’s taking it quite calmly. And she’s already got a new dress and everything. But I’m worried about the maid of honour. She’s from Victoria and is coming in tonight. But (David’s Bridal, in Langley, where Standeven got her new dress) said they’d find something.

“We even joked and laughed about it. We’re making memories. I think she likes her new dress, but it wasn’t obviously what she had planned.”

For those whose businesses were caught in the fire’s destructive path, the fallout from the blaze was grimmer.

Heather Prost, daughter of Urban Treasures antique store owner Rick Prost, said her father’s business was extensively damaged in the fire.

“It’s incredibly devastating. My dad’s business is his life,” said Prost, who worked there part-time. “He works seven days a week, incredibly long hours and he’s very passionate about his antiques and the furniture he builds.”

Prost said she also worked part-time at the store, which sold mid-century items including furniture, chandeliers, home decor, paintings, typewriters, registers and other old unique items.

“(The store) is going to be irreplaceable and it’s a tremendous loss. Antique alley is a major part of what makes New Westminster unique and it’s incredibly sad that it’s not going to be the same again.”

As many as a dozen businesses were destroyed by the fire that started in the E.L. Lewis heritage building at 634 Columbia Street in the city’s downtown core and spread to neighbouring buildings. Other businesses were affected by smoke damage.

New Westminster fire chief Tim Armstrong said propane tanks used by a roofing crew on the top of the building exploded during the fire.

He said it was too early to speculate on the cause, but he confirmed that fire investigators were aware that some repair work had been done on the roof the previous day.

“We have some ideas. We understand there were some roofers but I haven’t confirmed that is the cause.”

The blaze broke out shortly before 4 a.m. and quickly engulfed the building, which housed the old Copp’s family shoe store for nearly a century. The structure had collapsed by early morning, with the fire spreading to an adjoining building on Front Street.

More than 40 firefighters — including from departments in Delta and Burnaby — worked to contain the blaze, shooting water over the tops of all the neighbouring buildings. Thick, black smoke billowed in the air, towering over the city.

Passersby who gathered behind police tape a block from where firefighters fought the blaze were warned about air quality.

“The air is toxic,” one firefighter shouted.

Half a dozen police officers wearing gas masks helped direct traffic and pedestrians as several streets were shut down. Columbia Street between 4th Street and 8th Street were cordoned off as well Carnarvon Street to Front Street.

“One building is collapsed and we have extensive fire damage to a second building,” New Westminster fire chief Tim Armstrong said shortly after 9:30 a.m.

“We are still struggling with some of the businesses on Front Street ... we had a fully involved building within 40 minutes of being on scene.”

New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright said the heritage buildings destroyed in Thursday’s fire will likely be replicated in their historic form as part of the rebuilding plans.

“We won’t have anything left from these two buildings, but we’ve got the photographs and we know what they look like,” Wright said. “The loss is the heritage and we can’t replace that. But I’m sure as part of our future plans, they’ll be almost replicas of what was there.”

Wright said the first thing the city will do is take care of the affected businesses. “We’re in the process of finding them alternative locations right now and we’ll give them all the help we can.”

Wright said the city will be busy cleaning up the mess for the next two days and that a third building beside the E.L. Lewis building was damaged to the point that it too will have to come down.

“That will give us quite a hole in the downtown. But with disaster comes opportunity.

“It’s burned down before and its built up again, so that’s where we’re going. There were five buildings on the street, two are left. Our worry was that we’d lose them all. Thank heavens for Delta and Burnaby (fire departments) helping us and getting on to the fire real quick.”

Historian Archie Miller said the E.L. Lewis building was built in 1904 and that its loss — along with the second building destroyed, the Hamley block built in 1899 — will be a huge heritage loss for the city.

“They were extremely important heritage buildings,” he said. “They gave the impression of an older heritage Main street.”

He said the Copp’s Shoe Store, which closed last fall, “looked like an 1890s shoe store. It was right out of the past.”

Fraser Health Authority’s health protection manager, George Rice, said that about 10 restaurants and food businesses have been closed temporarily while the food issues are assessed.

“(Some) may have some fire and water damage. Others had their power and gas turned off. When utilities are turned off, they’re unfortunately out of business until they come back on.

“They’ll have to reestablish the power.

“Once the power and gas is back on, it shouldn’t be more than a day before they’re back up and running, assuming the area is accessible.”

Among the ruins were a restaurant, and the B.C. branch of ACORN Canada, a non-profit that advocates for low-income families.

Spokesman John Anderson said the B.C. branch is the hub of the national organization and serves thousands of families with its free income tax site.

An antique store on Front Street was also damaged in the fire.

“I’m estimating about a dozen businesses are affected,” said Armstrong.

“The whole corner block has collapsed ... the fuel load here is immense, it’s tinder-dry and now we are systematically trying to get into hot spots.”

By mid-morning, Sgt. Diana McDaniel, a spokeswoman with New Westminster police, said authorities had not received any reports of injuries and said the fire does not appear to be suspicious, although she noted it was too early in the investigation to say for sure.

Liliana Jerabe of Port Moody lost a wedding dress that she bought in August in Golden Brides for her June wedding.

“You have your heart set on something and now I have to find another one. That was my dress.”

Jerabe said she paid $700 for the dress and doesn’t yet know if she’ll get her money back. “There’s no way to contact anybody.”

She said the dress she lost in the fire was the first dress she tried on. “I went to a few more stores, but I came back.”

Business owners and employers were staring at the rubble in disbelief as they stood behind police tape watching their building smoulder.

“I am so shocked this happened. If this had happened during the day, you know, people would die,” said Rachel Goodine, who works for ACORN.

She was concerned how the business would continue to help people in need. “We do about 3,000 tax returns for low-income families a year, but without an office I don’t know how we are going to do that,” she said.

A family-run business since the 1920s, Columbus Signs is located next to the building that collapsed. Devastated owner Bill Shields said he didn’t know the extent of the damage, but had a bad feeling there would be a lot.

“It’s still standing,” he said, reluctantly.

“But it’s right next door so they are dumping water in there and it’s not looking too good right now. I can see the doorway to the building but we haven’t been allowed to go see it.”

Shields, whose father went to school with the owners of the collapsed building, said it was “a sad day” for the community.

City councillor Chuck Puchmayr, chairman of the emergency operations committee, said there may be a couple of other bridal shops with smoke damage. New Westminster is known for its many wedding shops that line Columbia Street. On 6th Street, Image in White Wedding Gallery was behind police tape and closed. The owners had vacated the shop.

“There’s a wedding shop on every corner,” said Puchmayr.

“We’ve lost 12 businesses so far. It keeps flaring up because of the very dry building.”

He said the city has set up a resource centre at the police department for business owners.

In 1898, a massive fire swept through New Westminster, the oldest city in Western Canada, destroying most of the downtown as well as residences on Carnarvon Street and Begbie Street. The blaze, which was later dubbed The Great Fire, caused an estimated $2.5 million in damage.

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